Lanzhou to Turpan

Our train journey form Lanzhou to Turpan was delayed by 4 hours which for us was actually a good thing as we were able to explore more of the town and take the cable car up the hills looking over the city. The city of Lanzhou was not one either of us had heard of before we had to travel there but was huge with a population of over 4 million, if this city was placed in Europe it would be the second largest. Quite crazy to think that we have never heard of it, 99% of people we know have probably never heard of it and will are more than likely to never think of hear about it again! The city is situated in a large valley cut by the Yellow river with dry barren hills either side which although look nice, help trap all the nasties emitted by the factories making in one of the worlds most polluted cities. Luckily we able to buy sleeper tickets out of this place for the next day as despite its size there was nothing to do other than take the cable car up the view and to breath some clean air above the smog.
The train journey was unlike any others we have had so far in China! For a start the train carriage was not full, so far this has been unheard of but was very welcome! The attendants were very attentive and our section was kept very clean throughout the journey, even the toilets had not been crapped all over 30 mins into the journey (although mothers were still making kids wee into the wash sinks and in the gap between the carriages….. why??) The view was for the first time in China not blocked by fog, smog, pollution or rain…. The sun was shining and the sky was blue. The route took us through the length of Gansu skirting Qunchai province, also known as ‘Chinas Siberia’ for its Gulags and nuclear testing/dumping grounds and into Xian Jiang province which has been like arriving in a new country!
Arriving in Xian Jiang has really been amazing, finally we have left behind the generic white tiled Chinese city and arrived somewhere with some real culture! Xian Jiang is located in Chinas extreme western areas and has always been a difficult area for them to control, its history is full of various uprisings and rebellions against Chinese rule, the latest being in 1997, 2000 and 2001. Of course now with the US showing the world you can do what you want with people if you label them a terrorist thousands of Uighurs have been locked up or executed post 9.11 to stop any seperatist movement and to scare the population into obedience. The original local people here are Uighurs, musleum and are more Central Asian than Chinese something which the government in Beijing has tried to counteract by flooding the region with Han Chinese settlers in a similar fasion to Tibet. In 2000 Beijing launched a ‘develop the west’ campaign offering Han Chinese from the west financial and social incentives to move the province which has apparently caused a lot of tension.
Turpan is an oasis town and was a regular stop on the ancient silk road. It is the second lowest place in the world after the dead sea and is also Chinas hottest inhabeted town, the hottest temperature on record is 49.5c! Our first day here has been stunning. The train station is in a neighbouring town about 60km away, from here we caught a bus which drove through the blistering desert further and further down into the huge depression the town is in. The town is famous throughout china for its grapes which grown everywhere here, along with other fruits. It really feels like we are no longer in china here, the people are different and the writing is in an Arabic type script. The market was filled with people listening to Kyrgiz music and watching bollywood or Pakistani films. The food is Central asian with mutton kebabs and great big naans covered in chilli powder and ground cumin, the market was a riot of new sounds and smells, a far cry from the crap tacky repetitive nature of the Chinese markets and streets. We stopped and spoke to many people on our walk about town this evening, none of them trying to con or sell us anything just people who were interested in who we are and where we were from. People stopped to check us out but instead of staring with their mouths open and laughing at us they smiled and said hello which has been great. The people we spoke to were so nice introducing us to everyone and showing us around town, helping us to buy food and teaching us some Uighur – this evening we have had none of the nationalistic bullshit we heard every time we spoke to a Chinese person which is such a relief.
Before sunset we also cycled to an old mosque with an afghan style minaret which was a great sight, made out of mud and straw in 1777 in a beautiful backdrop of grape fields and mud brick housing. The journey their took us past ancient burial sites, grape fields, mud houses and lots of donkey carts!
So far after our first day our only regrets about coming here is we that we didn’t do it a month ago! Its an amazing place with some truly amazing people!